Drone Media Debate Picks Up In 2013, But Coverage Remains Tough To Sustain

The debate over drones, which was largely absent from the 2012 campaign, has picked up again in the new year. On Jan. 2, a federal judge ruled against The New York Times in its suit seeking the legal memorandum justifying the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen and al Qaeda-linked cleric. But in her decision, Judge Colleen McMahon expressed frustration with the “thicket of laws and precedents” that allow the executive branch “to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws, while keeping reasons for their conclusion a secret.”

The following day, Wired senior reporter Spencer Ackerman wrote that Obama’s “New Year’s resolution” appears to be increased drone strikes, following reported strikes aimed at militants in Pakistan and Yemen. The Associated Press reported Friday that there have been seven strikes over a 10-day period, “one of the most intense series of attacks in the past two years," while ProPublica compiled a piece called "Everything We Know So Far About Drone Strikes."

Last week, Woods scrutinized Brennan's 2011 claim that there had not been a "single collateral death" in U.S. drone strikes the previous year -- a statement he'd later walk back, saying he simply had “no information” to the contrary.

Woods wrote that a drone strike had killed 42 Pakistanis just months before Brennan made that statement, with dozens believed to have been civilian deaths. TBIJ now estimates that 76 civilians were killed in the year-long period during which Brennan said no collateral damage had occurred.